Raheem Sterling
Raheem Shaquille Sterling (born 8 December 1994) is a Jamaican born English footballer currently playing as a winger for Liverpool. Liverpool career Raheem Sterling, a product of the Queen's Park Rangers academy, was brought to Liverpool in February 2010 for an initial fee of £600,000 (potentially rising to £5,000,000). The youngster gained attention when he scored five goals in a 9-0 win over Southend in the FA Youth Cup on 14 February 2011. He received his first call up to the senior team for the away-leg of the Europa League match against Sparta Prague - aged just 16 years and 79 days, however he failed to make the matchday squad. Still a schoolboy, he was only able to make the journey because of a half-term school holiday. After spending most of the 2011-12 season starring for the reserves, Sterling was given his debut for the first team on 24 March 2012 in a home League game against Wigan. He had been drafted into the matchday squad due to a spate of injuries to the likes of Craig Bellamy and Charlie Adam. He was brought on for Dirk Kuyt with just under 10 minutes remaining whilst Liverpool were disappointingly trailing 2-1. Whilst Sterling failed to help Liverpool rescue the game, he did put in a very encouraging performance, displaying both his pace and dribbling skills. Sterling became the second youngest debutant in Liverpool's history, behind Jack Robinson, at 17 years 107 days. Sterling was kept with the first team squad for much of the latter stages of the season, and made his second appearance on 1 May 2012 under similar circumstances to his first. He was brought on with just over 10 minutes remaining in a home League game against Fulham with Liverpool trailing 1-0. Again the 17 year old looked lively but could not help prevent the defeat. The youngster has spoken of his hopes to feature more regularly for the senior side in the 2012-13 season under new manager Brendan Rodgers. On 5 July 2012, he was one of only a small batch of players to take part in the first training session at Melwood since the end of the 2011-12 season - this also being manager Brendan Rodgers' first training session as Liverpool manager. Sterling appeared frequently in Liverpool's pre season games in the summer of 2012, and netted his first senior strike in his first home start for the club on 12 August in the friendly against Bayer Leverkusen. In just the third minute of the match, Sterling skipped past two Leverkusen defenders on the left wing and fired a curled shot into the right hand side of the net. Sterling made his first competitive start for Liverpool on 23 August 2012 away to Hearts in the Europa League. Sterling produced a man-of-the-match performance as his side claimed a 1-0 win. He followed this up three days later with his first League start in a 2-2 draw against Manchester City at Anfield. After the match, Brendan Rodgers described his performance against the defending champions as "phenomenal." Sterling's impressive start to the season saw him voted second in the Standard Chartered Player of the Month award for August 2012 by the Liverpool fans, losing out on the award to Joe Allen. Honours *Liverpool F.C. Reserves Player of the Season: 2011-12 *Liverpool F.C. Reserves Goal of the Season: 2011-12 (vs. Arsenal) Stats Notes *Sterling appeared on the Liverpool F.C. official site in an article series called "One to Watch" which outlined seven very gifted young players from Liverpool's academy. External links * *Raheem Sterling's profile on liverpoolfc.com * Sterling Sterling